Takeaways from a 2025 CIO Survey

From accelerating innovation to ensuring cybersecurity to meeting the growing demands of data and AI governance, organizations continue to face complex challenges in the IT landscape. Against this backdrop, the role of IT teams and IT leadership has only grown more integral to enterprise strategy and execution, ensuring that organizations are continually adapting their technologies and infrastructure to meet business needs.   

Now in its fourth year, Clarkston Consulting’s annual CIO Survey continues to capture insights to better understand the current and future priorities and challenges of upper or C-Suite level IT professionals (CIO/CISO/CTO/VP) at large companies ($350M+ revenue) in the retail, consumer products, life sciences, and wholesale distribution industries. We leverage this information to gain greater insights today and for the immediate years to come. 

We have included our key 2025 CIO Survey takeaways below.  

2025 CIO Survey Takeaways

IT budgets are increasing.

For a second consecutive year, most respondents expect budgets to increase (56%) or stay the same (31%). Only 4% expect a decrease. Distribution of budgets is spread somewhat evenly across areas, with the highest percentage going to security management and data analysis (15% each). 

This data signals the continued and growing investment in key IT and data priorities. With 87% of respondents expecting budgets to either increase or hold steady—and only 4% anticipating cuts—it’s clear that organizations are maintaining or accelerating their digital and data strategies. Notably, the highest budget allocations are going toward security management and data analysis, highlighting clients’ dual focus on protecting assets and extracting actionable insights. This trend underscores the need for clients to ensure they have the right resources and strategy in place to capitalize on data while managing risk. 

The shift toward multiple or hybrid ERP systems continues.

The shift toward using multiple or hybrid systems rather than just one ERP has continued in 2025. Hybrid systems usage has risen from 20% in 2023 to 44% in 2025.  

The sharp rise in hybrid ERP system adoption reflects a significant shift toward more flexible, modular technology strategies. Rather than relying on a single ERP solution, organizations are increasingly integrating multiple systems to meet evolving business needs, whether for scalability or specialized functionality. This trend suggests that clients should prepare for more complex IT landscapes and focus on data integration and governance to ensure these hybrid environments deliver value without adding unnecessary risk or fragmentation. 

Security concerns are shifting from a focus on external threats to internal protocol.

Concerns related to external threats have decreased since last year (27% vs. 39% in 2024); this is more in line with results from 2023 (22%). At the same time, concern about implementing security protocols across the organization has increased (now 48%, up from 36% in 2024). 

There is a notable shift in security focus: while concern about external threats is declining, worries about internal implementation of security protocols are rising sharply, now affecting nearly half of respondents. This suggests that while organizations may feel more confident in their defenses against outside attacks, they are increasingly challenged by the complexity of enforcing consistent, organization-wide security measures. Clients should prioritize strengthening internal processes and cross-functional security governance to ensure their security investments translate into effective protection. 

AI remains a top priority in 2025.

Just over half of respondents say they are investing in AI platforms in the next year; only public cloud is identified as an investment more often (59%). When asked to rank their top uses for AI, two options were identified most frequently: 1) enhancing the customer experience and 2) automating routine tasks. About 7 in 10 ranked enhancing customer experience as one of their top three uses. Automating routine tasks ranked in the top three slightly less often but was identified most often as their top use case. 

It comes as no surprise that AI remains a priority, with just over half of organizations planning to invest in AI platforms in the coming year—second only to public cloud. The leading motivations for this investment are clear: enhancing the customer experience and automating routine tasks. Notably, about 70% of respondents ranked customer experience in their top three use cases, while automation was the most frequently cited top priority overall. This signals a strong business case for AI that balances front-end innovation with back-end efficiency, and clients should consider how AI can drive both engagement and operational scale in their own environments. 

Respondents continue to face AI implementation challenges.

Despite the increased usage of AI, challenges to implementation are widespread. More than half identified each of the following as a challenge they had faced: AI compliance/governance, uncertainty where to start, difficulty integrating with existing systems, high cost of implementation, lack of understanding, and data privacy concerns. 

While AI adoption is accelerating, this data makes it clear that significant hurdles remain. More than half of organizations report struggling with key challenges such as compliance and governance, unclear starting points, integration difficulties, high costs, limited understanding, and data privacy concerns. These widespread barriers highlight the importance of having a clear, strategic approach to AI implementation—one that includes cross-functional planning, strong data foundations, knowledgeable resources, and experienced partners to guide the journey. Without this, clients risk stalling progress or failing to realize AI’s full potential.  

OUTSOURCING PARTNER CRITERIA REMAINS CONSISTENT.

Resource availability, case studies/demonstrated success, and breadth of services are the most important criteria for an outsourced partner to have. However, all nine criteria listed on the survey were identified as important by somewhere between 71% and 81% of respondents. In general, all criteria are similarly important.   

For companies evaluating outsourced partners, this data underscores the importance of a well-rounded value proposition. While resource availability, proven success through case studies, and breadth of services top the list, the narrow margin across all nine criteria shows that clients are looking for comprehensive, balanced capabilities. No single factor stands out far above the rest, suggesting that to earn client trust and business, partners must demonstrate strength across the board, from expertise and scalability to strategic alignment. 

Final Thoughts

The results of this 2025 CIO Survey provide a detailed view of IT departments across industries. To learn more about how BCTG can help your organization moving forward, contact our team today.    

This piece was adapted and updated from this piece originally published by a partner in our business ecosystem, Clarkston Consulting. Learn more about Clarkston here.